The New York Mets announced today through a press release that they will explore the possibility of adding a minority ownership partner.  Sports Illustrated’s Joe Lemire reports that the Mets may sell 20-25 percent of the team only – SNY and Citi Field are not apart of the sale.

Forbes valuated the Mets’ franchise at $858 million in 2010.  If the team and the buyer use that valuation, then a 25 percent stake is $214.5 million.

In case you’re wondering, Alex Rodriguez is the only player to have accumulated that much money via baseball contracts to outright buy that stake. Derek Jeter, Manny Ramirez and Barry Bonds are close with $205.4 million, $204.8 million and $188.2 million of baseball earnings respectively.
Here’s the team’s statement

As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.

However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.

Regardless of the outcome of this exploration, Sterling will remain the principal ownership group of the Mets and continue to control and manage the team’s operations. The Mets have been a major part of our families for more than 30 years and that is not going to change.

As we have said before, we are totally committed to having the Mets again become a World Series winner. Our fans and all New Yorkers deserve nothing less.